GDPR, Media & Advertising Agencies

GDPR, Media & Advertising Agencies

The 25th of May is speeding onto us and our daily routines will not be the same from the moment the GDPR will become part of the EU legal system.

Are we prepared for this? Barely!

A recent pan-European survey that asked executives if their organizations were fully prepared for GDPR compliance got a 50% positive answers in the best case (telecomms), while government organizations got a mere 25% approximately.

Of course our interest is primarily focused in our own yard, the media and advertising agencies.

It seems that companies collecting EU consumer data, must define themselves as Data PROCESSORS or as data CONTROLLERS, or both. And media agencies are usually both. But those that have more to fear and more housekeeping to do, are the digital media agencies.

Up to now, the critical and growing advantage of these agencies versus those dealing with only the analog media was the much narrower and more precise media targeting, as the media auditors are saying. In the quest for the advantage, in an era that speed is part of the success factor, we can reasonably doubt that the provisions of the GDP Regulation had been observed by all digital players. Firstly because of the competitive quest and secondly … because the provisions were not widely known and still are not.

So expect for the initial period a sudden reduction in delicate and of precise targeting campaigns, house clean-ups and a turn to massive targeting. Agencies and marketers will need time to learn (a lucrative business nowadays for third party compliance assessments) and to build-up their new data bases. And of course after the new set-up is born, lawyers need to follow.

So, now is the moment

For analog TV specialists, media buyers and media sellers. The advantage lays with those Channels and those shows that address distinct audiences AND have the metrics to prove it !

For SEO & Remarketing agencies to grasp a higher piece of the action, till the data based agencies clean-up their properties.

For already GDPR compliant advertisers and agencies, to boost their media campaigns and get the advantage of our times, which is no other than the time window till the rest media planners become also GDPR compliant.